Drug-soaked underwear is being smuggled into jail for lags to smoke for top

Clothes dipped in toxic drugs have been sent to inmates, says a shock report into a prisoner’s death.

Burglar Jamie Tate, 33, was found dead at Strangeways in Manchester in March 2021, after allegedly being supplied with some of the socks.

The report by Prisons and Probation Ombudsman Sue McAllister said: “Intelligence suggested prisoners were having clothes sent into them by friends and family that had been soaked in psychoactive substances and then smoking the ripped-up fabric.”

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A fellow inmate had told his mum to dissolve 50mg fentanyl tablets – an opiate painkiller – in water and soak socks in it. He then gave some to Tate.



Deadly doses of seized fentanyl
(Image: HONDURAN POLICE/AFP via Getty Im)

The report added: “The inmate distributed it on the wing and it had led to prisoners collapsing.”

Prison bosses have been warned by Ms McAllister: “More needs to be done to reduce both the supply of, and demand for, psychoactive substances.”

A prison has introduced a bizarre Weakest Link-style schem e for allowing inmates to get rid of their most irritating or troublemaking cellmates.



Fabrics had been soaked in illegal substances and distributed into Strangeways
(Image: MEN Media)

The Category B prison, meaning its home to highly dangerous prisoners for whom an escape must be made very difficult, allows fellow cons to kick out misbehaving roommates by way of a vote cast during regular “wing meetings”. Glendon Prison, in Buckinghamshire, generally only accepts well-behaved cons from other jails.

The inmates must then adhere to strict rules and if they fail to do that they can be exiled from the place by their peers, reports The Mirror. If booted out, they are made to return to the jail they originally came from.

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